Manchester attack victim `our mum, our best friend, our everything´

A mother killed in the Manchester Arena attack was the “light of our life”, her daughters have said.

Mother-of-three Jane Tweddle, 51, was one of 22 victims of suicide bomber Salman Abedi on May 22.

The school receptionist, from Blackpool, was at the venue with a friend to pick up her friend’s daughter when she was caught in the blast.

Her daughters, Harriet Taylor, Lily Taylor and Isabelle Taylor, said their mother always tried to keep them smiling and happy with practical jokes, sang to them and took them on walks in the country with their dog Marley.

In a tribute on Tuesday, they said: “There are no words for how we feel, our mum was every part of us.

“She is our strength, our laughter, our inner warrior, our kindness and our compassion. Forever we will hold on to those traits for it is our mum who instilled them in us.

“If you knew our mum well enough, you’d know she didn’t have the greatest luck in the world, and we think back to that night and if only she had one second of luck on her side we wouldn’t be writing this.

“But then we thought maybe our mum was the only person who was strong enough to have all this bad luck and to keep on going, keep on smiling, to keep on helping other people, going out of her way to make sure everyone around her was smiling.

Jane Tweddle's daughters said how she liked to crack a smile (Greater Manchester Police/PA)

“Our mum never gave up on smiling and being happy. Our house was full of laughter and love, mum was always going out of her way to make sure us girls were happy, even if she had a bad day she’d still put all her effort in to crack a smile out of us.

“She was our mum, our best friend, our everything. She taught us everything we know, raised us and she was the light of our life, and it’ll never be as bright without her.

“She will always be with us, the three of us together are our mum and we will do our best in life to make her so proud.”

22 people were killed in the suicide attack at the Manchester Arena (Peter Byrne/PA)

They also thanked police family liaison officers Dermot Murray and Mike Brook, who have been looking after the family, and CitySuites Manchester, who accommodated some of the victim’s families in the city, and her mother’s employers, South Shore Academy in Blackpool.

The tribute ended: “Like our mum used to sing (a lot) ‘every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure’. Our mum is and always will be our treasure.”